Common driver circuits for power semiconductors such as insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), junction gate field-effect transistors (JFET), and high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMT) may be adapted to control switching slopes of the power semiconductors. Switching slopes are at least one of voltage changes per time (dv/dt) occurring when voltages over load paths of power semiconductors rise or fall and current changes per time (di/dt) occurring when currents through load paths of power semiconductors rise or fall. Commonly, the slopes are not regulated to a certain value or range but are only limited, which may be sufficient for many applications. However, limiting the slopes may mean, for example, limiting dv/dt to a maximum voltage change value or di/dt to a maximum current change value. Limiting di/dt is particularly important with falling currents as an excessive (negative) di/dt in connection with parasitic inductances could generate voltages that may exceed a maximum voltage rating of the respective power semiconductor.
In cases where the signal used to drive the power semiconductor is under closed-loop control, another issue arises with respect to overshoot that may occur when the driving voltage of the power semiconductor is below the turn-on threshold of the semiconductor. In this region of operation, feedback paths that include an output of the respective semiconductor device are essentially disabled and at least portions of the control loop used to regulate the driving voltage of the power semiconductor may operate under open loop conditions. Such open loop behavior may cause voltage errors and overshoot that are corrected by the loop once the loop is fully closed.